I've been slacking on my Pinterest experiments lately. It's all about finding the right ones. So, I had some free time last night and decided to try another grout experiment. Unfortunately, there weren't a whole lot of directions with this one. That meant I had to experiment with different consistencies.
Yesterday, I got a phone call from Husband asking me to bring him his passport to work. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but yesterday Sunshine had Speech. She needed to get a nap in. Driving the hour and half round trip up to Husband's office wasn't on the schedule. We were out and I still had to get Monster from school. Luckily, I'm a very organized person. Even more so since I made up the snack baskets. I was able to run into the house and get lunch on the go for the kids in under 3 minutes. And, it wasn't all junk. In fact, it may have even been a healthier lunch than they eat at home. This has motivated me to get my fridge better organized as well. Looking forward to working on that this morning! I've been slacking on my Pinterest experiments lately. It's all about finding the right ones. So, I had some free time last night and decided to try another grout experiment. Unfortunately, there weren't a whole lot of directions with this one. That meant I had to experiment with different consistencies. First, I made the mixture really soupy and brushed it on with a toothbrush. Nothing. Then I made it a little thicker. Again, nothing. When I added more Borax, I thought I'd make a sort of paste, but the Borax has a funny texture and didn't really make a paste, so it kind of just made gritty vinegar. Here are the final results. Not worth my time, again. I didn't scrub super hard, because I'm still looking for something that doesn't require me to scrub my grout with a toothbrush. A friend of mine gave me a tip, but I haven't had time to try it yet. Pretty disappointed, but not surprised.
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Nana's birthday is coming up. Normally, I wouldn't post this so early since she reads this blog, but she's on vacation. Since she is on vacation for her birthday, the kids wanted her to know how much they love her and miss her. We made this and are sending it to Nana so that on her birthday, she'll know how much she's loved. (adapted from the idea found here)
Yup, I'm writing a post about my phone. I admit, I'm a dork when it comes to my phone because I'm still so new to this. Heck, I can't even figure out how to surf the web yet on my phone or figure out how to do email. But I digress... On Pinterest I saw this great idea of taking pictures of friends' Christmas cards to use as their photo id's. After MANY attempts to get good shots of the cards, I ended up getting at lot of contacts filled this way. I have to say, pretty darn good idea and super cute. Here's an example. Unfortunately, I'm not near as good of a photographer as this particular friend. Then, after having her call me three times and taking about 15 pictures, Husband mentions there's an app for screen shots that takes a picture of your screen for you. Thanks for that, Honey. A little late... The other cool idea I had seen is to use a cassette case for a phone stand. Great idea, however, with a case on your phone, it doesn't fit all that well. Works for my purposes though. I use it as a place to put my phone when I'm listening to Pandora.
My phone is seriously great. I am such a list maker and I have a great app for lists. It actually puts little post-its on my screen. I also have my Google Calendar synced with my phone. It's great. Husband puts his stuff on his calendar, I put my stuff on my calendar, we sync them and then my phone or computer has our schedules. The next thing I found is for women only, so guys, you can stop reading. I found an app called WomanLog Calendar. For someone as busy,and, I admit, spacey, as I am, this is great for keeping of track of when that time of the month is coming around again. I'm still working on figuring my phone out. The more cool things I find though, the more I love my phone and wonder how I ever lived without it. Sludge. That black gunk that lines your drains. We all know it. We all pretend it's not there. Unfortunately, in our house, we can't ignore it. At least once a year, we have to snake out our drains because the plumbing is so bad the sludge accumulates quickly, only in one sink in the bathroom though. We've tried everything. We've done Drano. We've done Liquid Plumber. We've done baking soda and vinegar. We've done Coke. All of these are fine for short term fixes, but, within a month of doing these, we usually have to snake. Last time we took all the plumbing out, scrubbed it all out with a toothbrush and vinegar and Purification Oil. It's still running nicely, but I see the sludge. It's about 4 more months until it's time to snake again. I can't take it. So, I decided to try a more radical preventive route. At least radical for me. I don't like to use bleach. In fact, I don't like to use any chemicals. Sometimes though, you just need the strong stuff. I came across this pin for getting rid of sludge. Unfortunately, I've got a horrible camera, and you couldn't see the black sludge in the pictures, or how the drain looked after. So, you'll just have to take my word for it, it was better. Not perfect, and I always seem to be looking for perfection, but definitely better. I'll probably do this once a month as manintence and see if we can go longer than 4 more months to snake the drain. I'll keep you posted down the line to see if this solves the long term problem. I also saw this super simple tip that seemed like a great idea. Just place a few drops of essential oils in a toilet paper tube and it's supposed to give off scent each time you roll. I use very high grade oils so you would think the scent would last a while. Nope. It last about two hours. Not worth it if you ask me. I was in the mood to try a bunch of stuff yesterday. The last thing I decided to try was the trick of using mayo to get rid of water stains on wood furniture. Problem was, I have no mayo. I thought I'd try Miracle Whip. Didn't work. Going to try actual mayo sometime this week and see if it does the trick, because nothing else has so far. Also managed to get the grandparents' Valentine's made yesterday. They came out super cute.
It's the little things that no one really notices that I love doing and make me feel the most accomplished. As you are all well aware, I've been organizing my life, piece by piece. I've been cleaning out cupboards and cabinets, which no one sees except us, and even then the only one who notices is me. It makes me feel good though. It makes everything feel a bit more put together. I had seen a pin on Pinterest about putting together snack baskets. Basically, make a up a basket in which kids can choose for themselves what they would like. I'd been searching high and low for the perfect basket, when a friend of mine posts this. She found my perfect basket. After many failed attempts in finding a basket similar to this, I found a basket in the dollar section of Target. It's not pretty, but it's the size and shape I wanted. Funny part is, if you look at the stuff in my basket and my friend's, you will find we have surprising similar ideas for healthy snacks for our kids. It's no wonder she found my perfect basket :) Now to find a basket to do the same with snacks in the fridge...
I hate Valentine's Day. I think it's ridiculous. I completely believe it's just a way to make men suffer and single women cry. I'm not saying people shouldn't celebrate, I'm just saying I don't want to. And, I don't want it forced upon my children. Yet, for the past 2 years, I've been forced to make Valentine's for Monster to take to school. Just one more excuse to load kids up on sugar. Too bad my kids aren't allowed to eat candy. Parents go way overboard on the candy thing for Valentine's. For that reason, I refuse to do Valentine's with candy. Since I am forced to do Valentine's for Monster's class, I'm always going to do something that does not involve sugar. That's why when I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I had found my project! Ever since I pinned this, I have been on a mission to find a heart shaped silicone muffin pan. It's impossible when it's not near Valentine's day. Instead, I decided to get one that could be used for any occasion. It looks like little suns. Now, I'm thankful I had the foresight to buy a muffin pan specifically for crayon making. The crayons will ruin the pan. Do NOT use a muffin tin you are going to be cooking in.
This week, Monster and I made his Valentine's for school. We chopped up crayons, and I didn't put them in a big bowl. That's just a wasted step. Put them directly in the muffin pan. When I baked them, I checked on them after 15 minutes, but they weren't all melted yet. I left them for about 10 extra minutes. Then, I let them cool in the oven. With the silicone pan, they are so simple to pop right out. Monster wanted Toy Story Valentine's so we bought those and then put the Valentine's and the sun crayons in treat bags. Cute, easy and not candy. I am so out of shape. Now that my neck and back are in working order and my elbow is almost to 100% and my shoulder has been popped back into the right spot, I'm getting back on an exercise "routine". I put routine in quotes because nothing in my life has a normal routine. I've got things I try to remember to do everyday, but allow room for change. Anyway...I've started out with simple ab work. Or so I thought it was going to be simple. Day one of doing this, I had to stop at number 7 because my muscles were so sore. Number 10 hurts my elbow slightly, but I can work through it. As I get better at this routine, I'll add some more stuff. Another thing I found for incentive (other than the mirror) was this... However, after deciding I was going to use money instead of stones for this, I also realized that this would require a scale. I don't have one. So, instead, I'm just adding a dime for each day I exercise. If I don't exercise, I have to take a dime out. By the end of the month, I will have enough for a small treat for myself (coffee!) if I exercise daily. As for breaking myself of my Starbucks habit...I have two small children to help with that and a phone call to my mom if the kids aren't on board. It's actually sad that I need a coffee intervention!
My ultimate goal is to lose 30 lbs by the end of the year. Doesn't seem tough, but the last time I had that much to lose, it took me 3 years and diet pills. I promised Husband that I will not go the diet pill route again. However, if I'm not seeing results by summer, I may have to take my doctor's advice and go on a purification diet. I don't want to and I'm not sold on it, but I've got to explore all my options. I've done my workout for today, but, I'm feeling so good, I think I'll add in some yoga this afternoon. Monster loves doing yoga with me so I'll have an exercise buddy :) After months of waiting, Monster and I finally got to do our density experiment. We waited so long because I decided to use the honey jar, with just a bit of honey left in the bottom, for this experiment. The experiment is a Seven Layer Density Column. This is so easy to do. Not much room for screwing up. I say that, yet it took two attempts at this. You live and learn. Even though the experiment says to use food coloring, we learned that the food coloring must have a different density. We colored the water and rubbing alcohol and this is how it turned out. Apparently, not only do the rubbing alcohol and water actually mix together, but they then mixed with the color of the dishsoap forming this yucky mix. So, it was back to the drawing board. We emptied and started over. I left out all food coloring this time. The layers are slightly more difficult to see but it sure does look prettier. We had the same issue as a lot of the people who left comments on this experiment. Our alcohol and water combined. Not a big deal. Pretty cool experiment overall. Monster thinks it's super cool that you can shake it up and it all separates out again. This was a fun thing to do when we had about 15 minutes of time to kill.
Last week was one of the first snowy weeks here. It also happened to be a week my kids got colds. So, no snow play for us. They were going a bit (understatement) stir crazy. That was until I decided to make a mess. I was trying to clean out the bathroom cabinets and came across shaving cream. I cleared off the table, got some trucks sprayed the table with shaving cream and let them go to town. Since I already had the shaving cream out, I decided to also make some bath paints. After the kids had worn out the shaving cream table, I stuck them in bathing suits, threw them in the bathtub and let them paint til their hearts' content. Two minutes of prep, 10 minutes of clean up, and an hour and half happy kids. Well worth it!
Instead of making a lot of different posts, I decided to combine everything into one this morning. I'll start off with a health update. My elbow feels great! It's still weak and I still need to so exercises to strengthen the muscle that I lost, but I can move it almost pain free. My neck and back are amazing. Everything else is coming along slowly, but it is coming along. This weekend, we had our final Christmas. I think this is probably Monster's favorite. He loves playing with his cousins. Sunshine loves it, too, but she loves playing with Uncle "J". Monster hit the mother load this celebration. He got awesome spy gear. I mean seriously awesome. He got laser trip wires, video recording spy glasses, a recording bug and a spy pen. He also go a remote control monster truck that the bug fits into perfectly and you can drive it around and record conversations. We have all been having a great time playing with this stuff! Sunshine doesn't quite understand the lasers, but, hey, she's 2. I was slacking and didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, so I didn't get to capture all the fun stuff that went on Saturday on "film". Here's a picture of the spy bug. Pretty darn cool! Then as an added bonus, Sunday, Nana picked him up a Cars 2 calendar on clearance. Now Spy HQ has a spy calendar in it. For Saturday's festivities, I decided to make something new and different for dessert. I, of course, found this recipe on Pinterest. I made Pumpkin Lust Cake. Awesome. I changed the recipe just a little. I did a graham cracker crust instead of pecan. Also, it was a little too pumpkiny for me, so, if I make this again, I'd do one box vanilla pudding and one box pumpkin spice. Another thing that I did over the weekend was test out another tip. Sort of. Monster got dry erase marker on his jeans at school....red dry erase marker. I soaked them, scrubbed them, nothing. So, I decided it was time to try this pin. Well, honestly, this was the first time I actually LOOKED at the pin. None of it applied. However, I did read some of the comments. I think it is the second comment down says that you can get dry erase marker out of things with the white board spray cleaner. I have this on hand from my teaching days, so I figured why not give it a shot. I didn't think it was going to work, which is why I didn't take a before picture. But, it did work. It worked great! After spraying and rubbing, I washed the jeans. Here's how they came out. Not too bad! I'm pretty impressed. Problem is, now Monster thinks I can get every stain out of anything. Well, if I can't, Nana can.
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